Nurit Sharett > First week in Beijing / Primeira semana em Pequim

First week in Beijing.
We arrived last thursday for a two months residency. Me and my husband Gary.
A big studio in a small village on the outskirts of Beijing, nothing like the village I imagined when I was back home. When I was told I could ride on a bicycle to the village I imagined an easy ride besides rice fields to a picturesque village. But we are a few steps away from a small village, with three little streets full of little restaurants, small shops and food stalls. Many bicycles and motorcycle-riders honking in order to warn you to get out off the way.
After the first few hours of shock I realised that everybody is looking at us and when I smile, they smile back; when I say Ni Hau (Hello), they answer with a smile. Sometimes with embarrassment. But everyone reacts nicely. So I greet everyone I see.
This is something I don’t experience at home, where I often come back home at night and tell Gary that I smiled today to five people and none of them smiled back.
But we are in China, and here people smile back.
At the evening of the first day, we both had the feeling that we had seen all there was to see in this little place and were asking ourselves how we would pass a whole month here. But sure enough, on the second day we found many new places and our encounter with the village and the people became personal. We already have our favourite shop-owner where we buy things for the house like candles and glasses. And our favourite restaurant-owner. Both are very friendly women who try with patience and humour to understand our wishes. We buy our food supplies in small quantities which makes us go shopping everyday and thus getting to know more people and let them know us.
I already know how to say: hi, thank you, no meat, this and the bill.
We manage with those few words, a lot of finger pointing, pantomime and mimic and with the big help of the iphone and the dictionary apps.
On thursday we will have our first Chinese lesson.
Every shopping or meal is an adventure. Yesterday we went to the village supermarket, in no time all the young sellers were surrounding us. One by one they joined us, giggling, trying to explain about the items we intended to buy and taking pictures with us. Until the manager called them back to work…
It is hard to imagine how fast we made this empty studio become our home and this remote and little village a place I like.